Air carrier captain reported having to fly high on the glidepath while on the ILS runway 35 to phli ...

Narrative:

Flying ILS runway 35 in phli. Broke out of IMC conditions several miles out on final. Saw [a] very large cruise ship steaming from left to right out of harbor with course that would cross the short final in front of runway 35. It appeared to me that the ship's vector would cross ours on a very short final 1 mile. I directed the first officer to query the tower if this ship was going to be a problem with our final. The tower's answer was something like '...they (the ships) don't coordinate with us.' I elected to fly high on the final glide path; approximately one dot high; to ensure adequate clearance over the cruise ship but was also considering a go-around because of the height of the ship. It turned out that we did; in fact; cross directly over the ship on short final. If I had stayed on the ILS glideslope the clearance would have been very uncomfortable. Had this been IMC conditions and with any deviation at all below the glideslope; there may have been inadequate clearance over the ship. Although I was able to fly a little high and conduct a stabilized approach in this instance; it seemed like a potentially hazardous situation that should be better coordinated in the future.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier Captain reported having to fly high on the glidepath while on the ILS Runway 35 to PHLI to avoid a possible collision with a large cruise ship passing directly under.

Narrative: Flying ILS Runway 35 in PHLI. Broke out of IMC conditions several miles out on final. Saw [a] very large cruise ship steaming from left to right out of harbor with course that would cross the short final in front of Runway 35. It appeared to me that the ship's vector would cross ours on a very short final 1 mile. I directed the First Officer to query the Tower if this ship was going to be a problem with our final. The Tower's answer was something like '...they (the ships) don't coordinate with us.' I elected to fly high on the final glide path; approximately one dot high; to ensure adequate clearance over the cruise ship but was also considering a go-around because of the height of the ship. It turned out that we did; in fact; cross directly over the ship on short final. If I had stayed on the ILS glideslope the clearance would have been very uncomfortable. Had this been IMC conditions and with any deviation at all below the glideslope; there may have been inadequate clearance over the ship. Although I was able to fly a little high and conduct a stabilized approach in this instance; it seemed like a potentially hazardous situation that should be better coordinated in the future.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1719605
Time
Date	202001
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	PHLI.Airport
State Reference	HI
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Commercial Fixed Wing
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Final Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Multiengine
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 129 Flight Crew Type 1542
Events
Anomaly	Conflict Ground Conflict Less Severe Inflight Event / Encounter Unstabilized Approach

Air carrier captain reported having to fly high on the glidepath while on the ILS runway 35 to phli to avoid a possible collision with a large cruise ship passing directly under.